Families of the 'Nakdonggang Riverside Murder Case' File for Retrial... Will the 'Unjust Imprisonment' Be Resolved?

Choi In-cheol (left) and Jang Dong-ik, victims of the "Nakdong Riverside Murder Case," who were wrongfully imprisoned for 21 years after being falsely accused of murder due to police torture, are sharing their thoughts after the retrial sentencing hearing held at the Busan High Court on the morning of the 4th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Choyoung] The family members of the victims of the 'Nakdong Riverside Murder Case,' who suffered wrongful imprisonment for 21 years due to false confessions coerced by the police, are applying for a retrial.

Choi Incheol (60) and Jang Dongik (63), who were wrongfully convicted as suspects of robbery-murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, served 21 years before being released as model prisoners. Their retrial attorney, Lawyer Park Junyoung, announced on the 7th that he plans to file a retrial application for Choi’s brother-in-law and wife at the Busan District Court.

Following the acquittal of Choi and Jang on the 4th, attention is focused on whether the families’ victory in the retrial will bring consolation to the victims who were falsely accused in the 'Nakdong Riverside Murder Case.'

The Nakdong Riverside Murder Case occurred on January 4, 1990, in Saha-gu, Busan, where a man and woman in their 30s, dating in a car by the Nakdong River, were kidnapped by assailants, threatened with a gas gun, after which the woman was sexually assaulted and murdered, and the man was injured.

During the first trial in 1992, Choi’s brother-in-law testified in court that Choi was at his in-laws’ house in Daegu on the day of the incident, providing an alibi. However, the Saha Police Department, which framed Choi at the time, ruled this testimony as perjury.

The Saha Police concluded that Choi’s wife had asked her brother to commit perjury, and arrested Choi’s brother-in-law on charges of perjury and his wife on charges of instigating perjury. In the subsequent trial, the two were sentenced to five months in prison with one year probation and eight months in prison with one year probation, respectively.

Lawyer Park Junyoung, who is handling the retrial, plans to file the retrial application for Choi’s brother-in-law and wife at the Busan District Court on the 15th after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Park’s legal team emphasized, "The brother-in-law’s testimony at the time was true, and there was no instigation of perjury. They were stigmatized as family members of a murderer and apparently could not even dare to appeal at that time."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.